Design thinking, where
innovation and creativity
connect(Part 1)

At HP business groups, innovation begins at ideation

by Stacy Wolff, Global Head of Design, HP;

Lance Hill, Global Head of Insights, HP;

Kevin Massaro, Global Director of Consumer Product Design, HP

Things at HP Inc. have changed. Under new leadership, and with new imperatives to guide them, the company has undergone a shift—a big one. In the process, HP began the lengthy process of positioning itself as something new, something … innovative. Stacy Wolff, former director of notebook design and current global head of design, helped to lead that charge.

Back in 2011, HP Inc. underwent a shake-up, implementing company-wide changes that saw new leadership, new directives, and new goals. For then CEO Meg Whitman, in particular, this meant a complete change of focus. Going forward, Whitman wanted HP’s design teams to focus on answering one, very specific question: “Is it beautiful, or not?”

With that in mind, the company began what would become four years of change—at every single level. Most important among these changes was a shift in focus, from products—cost, technology, and addressable markets—to design. How HP’s products are created, and why, became the through line.

Stacy Wolff, after being brought on as global head of design under Whitman’s leadership, helped to lead this effort. And, with the introduction of Dion Weisler as CEO in 2015, changes in focus have continued apace. Weisler, for his part, is a “tinkerer.” His focus quickly became a continuation of what began under Whitman’s leadership—a passing of the baton, if you will.

All of these changes were made with specific goals in mind: to enable product design that is fresh, even iconic, and to enable leading design that will inspire.

For design teams at HP, that directive was and remains the “aha” moment.

Unify to diversify

The past four years have seen HP undertake the long, arduous journey of becoming a leader—with products that are consistent, and consistently stand out.

Before anyone could invigorate product design, though, HP’s design team faced the challenge of creating unified design guidelines for an already expansive and diverse line of offerings. Not only that, they needed to reinvent the thought process behind even the most basic product design.

In the process of accomplishing all that, the company saw significant upheaval. Processes were centralized, designers moved departments, budgets were centralized, and new investments were made. When the dust settled, HP had successfully brought together budget and people, and removed existing siloes.

You could call the first few years of change a revitalization. It required the necessary work of getting the house in order. And, doing so successfully positioned the company to take their first steps into a new world. Those steps ultimately led to progressive form factors, harmonious design, and—in our opinion—iconic products that people desire. That’s design innovation.

The golden ratio

In the process of entering this new world, the real challenge became finding a way to create unified design guidelines for a company with such an expansive and diverse line of products. After pushing the limits of creativity, the design team at HP settled on three overarching goals: Product design should be progressive, harmonious, and iconic. Together, these attributes create the acronym, “PHI,” the Greek letter representing the golden ratio.

“Progressive” refers to the way product design moves forward year after year. The team chose the word “harmonious” (rather than consistent) to encourage designs that complement one another, while still giving the company room to create different looks for its many products.

The most subjective of these three design criteria, though, is “iconic.” For the design team, this describes the act of designing a product that stands out. After all, an ugly, practical product will disappear in the weeds; a beautiful, pragmatic product will bloom and flower.

Standing out, and standing together

Meeting these ambitious goals meant cleaning up the design of existing offerings, creating new leading products, and developing products that can achieve truly iconic status, such as the Spectre x360 convertible notebook.

Thus, HP began designing an array of products that both stood out and stood together—while also competing on price and aiming for the highest levels of performance.

By balancing pragmatism with a desire for change, HP has been able focus on crafting experiences that matter to their consumers—and the company is only just getting started.

A just-right balance

So, where is HP today? Over the course of four years, the company has moved at light speed to get the balance between quality design and innovation just right. In doing so, they have transformed chaos into an extreme focus on detail, with a desire for true change and pragmatism driving the way forward.

The future of HP will see a continuing evolution of their products, and the company as a whole. And, with a new emphasis on developing beautiful, pragmatic products, design thinking and innovation feels right at home in the heart of HP.

Emphasizing design—the OMEN X

For HP, the OMEN X gaming desktop represents another step forward.

The designers that helped create the OMEN X began development by targeting the enthusiastic gamer—the highest level of gamer. They only make up 5 percent of gamers, but they were a critical target. After all, if you’re aiming to design the “ultimate” gaming machine, you need to go to the experts.

Setting their sights on such a small, distinct target felt like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Aiming for a specific demographic, however, strengthened the overall design of the product. In the end, these gamers would (ideally) appreciate the effort dedicated to meeting their needs and wants.

Customize everything

When they started crafting the design for the OMEN X, HP’s designers first gathered input from hardcore, serious gamers. Their ideal consumers, these high-level users clearly valued performance. But delivering a pragmatic product alone went against HP’s new design innovation strategy.

So, instead of settling for a powerful machine, the designers dug deeper into their audience’s desires. Kevin Massaro, Global Director of Consumer Product Design at HP, points out that, “Gamers love to get in there with their hands. This was about designing the touch points of that experience—we’re selling this as a bare-bones chassis with nothing in it, so you can build things from scratch.”

With an intense focus on customization, the designers found that serious gamers valued high-end performance above all else. But that’s not all: They also wanted to be able to access the innards of their PCs with ease, so they could tinker with their machines—almost like classic car enthusiasts. That’s why OMEN X was developed with latch doors, so users could quickly access hard drives and adjust the innards of their PCs with ease.

Omen X: Typhoon exploded view

All about the experience

Lance Hill, Director of Customer and Market Insights at HP, notes, “We zeroed in on exactly who we wanted to make this for early on in the process, and that allowed us to go deep on the iterative design thinking.”

It shows in the end product. For example, the most distinctive design element of the OMEN X is its diamond shape, achieved by tilting the box at a 45-degree angle.

From a purely visual standpoint, the shape is striking, unusual, and echoes the OMEN brand’s logo. On another level, the tilt allows gamers to easily adjust airflow by keeping vents away from the floor—which is critical for performance. The OMEN X also comes with a built-in tool kit and accent lights for extra customization.

With the OMEN X, HP’s design team focused on designing the experience, not the product. And this represents the true purpose and power of design thinking and innovation—at its finest.

Stacy Wolff

Stacy Wolff is the Global Head of Design at HP. Since 2012, Wolff has focused on imagining new, innovative classes of computing products.

Lance Hill

Lance Hill is Global Head of Insights at HP. He has been in advertising for 15 years, almost all of which have been spent within the discipline of account planning.

Kevin Massaro

Kevin Massaro is a Global Director of Consumer Product Design at HP. He played an instrumental part in the design and creation of OMEN X.